Continuing the “Google Gear associated with CES” stories, here’s a long sleeve t-shirt that us booth babes, err staffers, were given to wear. They came in red, blue, green and yellow, each corresponding to a specific section — mobile, search, community and, uh, hmm, maybe media, i don’t really remember.

Google traditionally doesn’t do the “big booth thing” and I was kinda surprised by our presence here. It’s probably because we displayed at a Digital Life conference in NYC and there was some sunk cost is getting the booth built. Anyway, it was neat with giant Lego pieces.

From Larry Page’s 2006 CES Keynote comes the Google Pack Fanny Pack. Get it – it’s literally a pack. And it promotes Google Pack.

Some might insist this is a shoulder bag or maybe even a “rucksack.” Don’t kid yourself, it’s a fanny pack. You wear this and you might as well strap on the sandals and socks too.

I believe it came stuffed with a small wooden puzzle and maybe some other swag.

While some of my garments have stories, others tell no tales. These two shirts were just random Google logo t’s that came to me via the T-Shirt cabinet — a magical place on campus periodically filled with random gear for Googlers. This mechanism has been the discussion of many email threads about proper etiquette and efficiency for optimal t-shirt distribution.

Every summer Google has a Family Picnic — it’s like an outdoor version of our Holiday Party except kid friendly – lots of activities, food, etc.

In 2004 the annual picnic was coincidentally just after our IPO which lead some reporters to believe it was a celebration tied to the event. Not true — to most of us the IPO was a pretty cool day, but not something to celebrate. We just wanted to get back to work — I mean there were so many news crews around, more than I’d ever seen without the chalk outline of a crime scene.

Oh yeah, and this hat – they gave out hats at the picnic 🙂

This particular one says “talent scout” on the back, simultaneously thanking me for referring many job applicants to google and also making the shirt embarrassingly unwearable.

We famously get hundreds of thousands of resumes a month but still we’re hungry for new recruits. As a product manager helping to grow the team is a high priority – # interviews and # referrals are factored into our performance scores. There’s also a small monetary incentive if your referral gets hired but given the rejection rate i think this bonus is likely 1/10th of what it actually should be. I’ve gotten two people hired with well over 50 referrals.

So if you want to work here just check out our Jobs page and let me know.

The Google Dance is our annual party for webmasters, SEOs, SEMs, and basically anyone attending the annual WebMasterWorld conference in San Jose. The event itself is named for the process by which Google periodically makes a set of changes to our ranking algorithm and the associated changes to our idenx.

2004 was my first year attending – the shirts are always a big hit so I’ve foregone the last two because of long lines. Best one was still 2003’s “Do the Robot.”

Apparently when you buy a company you really do get all their assets, including the shirts off their back. A few years ago Google acquired Sprinks, a competing ad network.

Shortly thereafter some random boxes of Sprinks promotional gear showed up.

One common theme on Google Gear is the use of our red, blue, yellow, green colors. It’s a dead giveaway even when the Google logo isn’t front and center. Here’s one AdSense milestone shirt (i think the one year anniversary) with the AdSense puppy.

Next piece of google clothing: The Gmail launch t-shirt.

A gig of webmail storage for free sent Microsoft and Yahoo scrambling to keep up.

This shirt also taught me another important lesson: at tech companies and comic book stores, XL t-shirts are really XXXL (perhaps so the husky occupants feel a bit more svelte).

My wife teases me frequently about the amount of Google clothing I’ve accumulated. I defend these shirts, hats, fleeces, etc with the plea “But each has a story.”

Story 1: “Charlie Has Left the Building“
This shirt was from spring 2005 when original Google chef Charlie Ayers departed to start his own restaurant. Charlie was an awesome spirit who ran our cafe with care and some quirks. Some unofficial rules we lived by:
1. Don’t take two desserts – Charlie will find you.
2. Don’t waste food – Charlie is watching.
3. If you don’t bus your tray Charlie will take them away from all of us.